Forever's Hell
by DarkRubberDuckyofDoom
Summary: Makino Tsukushi had never asked for safety, love, or respect from others. Being part of the Japanese mafia had taught her to depend on herself, and herself alone. That was until she met Doumyouji...the mafia's next leader. Rated for violence and language.
1. Our Story Began

Well, I got this crazy idea one random bad day and the idea stuck. So here I am, writing yet another story I really don't have time to be writing! I suck! Ok, well. . . Guess I should go on, eh? Let's ride!

Enjoy!

P.S. No, this whole story is not in first-person. I'd go crazy. It's just this one, but don't hold it against me!

P.S.S. Sorry, I had to re-write a tiny bit, so . . .((Working on two, I promise!))

**Disclaimer: I own neither Hana Yori Dango nor the Japanese mafia. So don't sue/kill me. _Because I really do not want the sleep with the fishes!_**

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**Prelude: Our Story Began . . .**

Everything's normal.

I started going to Eitoku Academy one year ago. It's a nice school, considering the fact each and every kid here is spoiled and rotten. Everyone's the son or daughter of someone you'd normally see in the papers or on T.V. What? Am I spoiled and rotted? Well, I have to admit, a little.

Paupers have little or no power in this type of school. In truth, they kinda get on my nerves. I'm not against them completely or anything, but the few I've run into I've noticed were part of families that were always trying to wheedle their way into high society. Funny that in our society they'd most likely crash and burn. We don't really like outsiders all that much.

Well, ok, I'm perfectly fine with other poor people, but these folks have no idea what they'd get into. Most of these families were . . . Well, jack-asses, in all honesty. The girls would speak of nothing but clothes, jewelry, nose jobs and boob jobs. The guys would rant about how their _fathers_ had bought them a new watch, or a new car, or a new this-and-that.

Boredom.

Oh? Which group did I fit into?

Well, I was in a group of people much like myself, though I mostly kept to myself. After all, the others in my 'group' were, at the time, very dangerous and I was just trying to live my life. We were . . .and are, alike in that our families were knit quite closely. We ran in the same circle, went to the same events, believed the same crap.

Our families are part of the Japanese mafia.

Yep. My family is part of the crime, drug, and murder rings of Japan. Though we're not the richest, or most powerful, we still hold a great deal of influence. It's not publicly known, of course. Do you know how dead I would be if I was known to be the daughter of 'Mama' and 'Papa' Makino? Really dead!

Yasukichi and Cheiko Makino were both in their twenties when Doumyouji Tatsumi, the leader of the mafia more than twenty years ago, had asked them if they would consider a life serving the Japanese underground. Two years later, I, Makino Tsukushi, was born.

They decided to side with the Doumyouji's and the countless other families ruling Japan's underground soon after my second month of life. They thought a life following the rules of the government would only put me in a dazzle.

Oh, yeah, being raised by killers wasn't dazzling at all!

So, as you can tell, I was a little . . . different . . . from the other kids at Eitoku. They lived knowing their bodyguards would keep a constant watch on them. I lived knowing only my own abilities could save me. That and my family's ready supply of weaponry in a room just off the main staircase. Eitoku doesn't have metal detectors, so I also kept a convenient hand-gun in my locker and strapped to my thigh.

Papa thinks it's funny. A teenage girl, mini skirts as a standard dress code, and a gun just barely hidden from sight. He was so proud of me my first day of school. I had hid a rather large gun in my backpack . . . I was in kindergarden. Mama had found it and smiled at me, then placing it back in the hidden pocket. I had walked around school carrying what was then a very heavy weapon.

Not one person had noticed.

Anyway, the only reason I'm telling you straight out that I'm the child of a mafia head is because this was where my story began, one year ago. In this very hallway I now stand in, where I met the man that would someday become my leader.

Doumyouji Tsukasa, grandson of the man that had permitted entrance to my family; and the sole reason I never walked down this hallway for the first months I attended Eitoku. Yeah, he was one of the mafia group in Eitoku I mentioned. He and five others attended this academy for the rich and powerful.

He was the strongest of them; of anyone. He could beat anyone in a fight, fair or free. He was the definition of 'sexy' and 'deadly'. His eyes could pierce you with their intensity; his mouth would make you shiver in fear . . . or lust, in my case. Everything about him radiated power.

Tsukasa could have had _any_ female this side of the globe. Why he chose me when he'd already broken away from us, I don't know, but I'm only back here now because of him.

That day, I'll never forget. Nor will I ever accept it as truth. Whether it be a lie to protect me or truth to protect me, I'll never accept it until I see the end of this life.

Our story. . . The story of how the Japanese mafia fell and how we fell with it . . .Began here and ended here.

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It's still so short! Damn it! Barely three pages. What's with that? Anyway, what did all of you readers think? Bit confusing? Yeah, for me, too. I just hate my Hana Yori Dango fics. Always confuse me.

Please review! And tell the truth! ((But please, no grammar and typing problems. It's a computer. It messes stuff up sometime.

Computer (aka Mekki): Beep! Beep beep bep bep beep!

Author: o-O . . . Oh my . . .


	2. Dangerous Loyalties

Allo again, everyone. I just want to say -cry- . . . you people are so sweet! I'm so happy people like it! I just hope to keep you all happy!

Anyway . . . Guess I'll get on with it, kill you slowly. Believe me, your eyes will bleed after reading. ((All my fan fictions, in my opinion, suck!))

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I'm just a duck living in captivity! I don't own Hana Yori Dango . . . Nor any mafia. I'm innocent! Sorta . . . **

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**Chapter One: Dangerous Loyalties**

_One Year Ago . . ._

"Damn it, Tsukushi. Put that down!"

Giggling, Makino Tsukushi, daughter to two of the most important _yakuza_, Japanese mafia, families, tossed a solid glass paperweight around like a toy. When Papa glared at her, she smiled sweetly and rolled it onto the desk. "What? You invited me down here. Why are you yelling at me?" Tears, fake of course, welled in her eyes, threatening to fall. "So mean!" To add onto the effect, she rested her forehead against her arms and sobbed. A girl number one defense: crying!

Just like the sucker he was for his children, Papa felt instant guilt. "I'm sorry, Tsukushi. But I wanted to talk to you about Enji. Not have you play with blunt and sharp objects." Taking the letter opener from his daughter, he replaced it for a piece of paper from a stack beside his computer. "He's causing more problems than he's solving, Tsukushi."

She sighed as she took the list of fights, shootings, stabbings and such Enji, one of her many bodyguards, had gotten into and/or been responsible for. "He has been kinda hostile lately. Wonder why." Tossing the paper back onto her father's desk, she glanced out the window.

"He's beginning to be a threat to not only you, but the Families as well. If he keeps messing up, there will be no choice," he said solemnly, taking off his glasses to stare at her. "You'll have to 'fire' him, yourself."

She nodded in response. Since men and women alike worked at the _yakuza_ head quarters, many ended up leaving for reasons that were far more important to them than the Japanese underground. Some, choosing to leave and keep quiet about the world of which they once lived, went onto living in little country houses with dogs, families, and safety. Away from all the dangers of mafia life, but kept under close watch for many months. Sometimes years.

But the few that were 'fired' couldn't be trusted to keep all the secrets they had had access to. The Families didn't want all of the criminal activity and murdering leaked to the public or authorities, nor the identities of those doing the criminal activity and murdering to be released. So, the 'trash' had to be taken out by a calm, professional person whose strong mind and concentration could cover any crime and any trail.

Tsukushi was one such 'trash man' . . . who was currently playing flip-it with a pencil. "So what? One more chance at life, or do you want a time limit?" she asked, now twirling the pencil between her fingers. (A/N- Like Spike does in the first episode of Cowboy Bebop, if it helps!)

"If he does one more stupid stunt or gets you hurt, 'fire' him." When he set one hand over the other on top of his desk was all the sign she needed to know the discussion was over.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Nodding his approval, Papa waved his hand to her. "See ya at home, papa!"

He smiled lovingly at his daughter and nodded again. "See you at home, Tsukushi."

As soon as the door closed behind her, a loud sigh from her father's secretary made her smile. Papa sure did get a mean look on his face when he was upset. Funny. If they all knew him like she did, they'd laugh at his 'serious' face.

As she started downstairs, Tsukushi noticed a lot of high-to-do at the room marked 'Conference Room B'. Funny, there wasn't anything going on in her department of expertise this week. _Then again_, she thought, _there _are_ missions other than mine!_ Hoping down the stairs, not liking the elevator as much, Tsukushi shrugged it off. If they wanted her involved, they'd inform her.

From the hallway, he watched the flash of what he believed to be the Makino's only daughter. Her brown hair sailed out behind her as she jumped down the first three steps. _Interesting._ Lifting an eyebrow, he tried to turn back to the director of the Families' affairs, Urara-sensei.

Basically, she told the 'trash men' just what trash needed taken out.

For a woman, she wasn't half-bad at running the place. After all, not many people could send out for a person's life and not blink an eye. She could and even laugh at some of the stupid things their prey had done to get killed for. Hell, they did, too. You'd think people that knew the inside would learn to keep their mouth shut. The _yakuza_ always knew what you did.

Well, almost always.

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The last thing she had remembered was standing in her bathroom with Enji staring at her, tears falling down his deathly pale cheeks. _Gomen, Tsukushi-chan. Gomen._ The words echoed in her head, playing over and over again. Driving her out of reality and into nightmares.

The gun! The gun that was meant to protect her. Ironic. He'd said it himself. 'How ironic to kill you with the very gun you gave to me.' The son of a . . .

"Tsukushi!" From the hallway, Mama's yelling echoed throughout the hospital wing. Though it sounded as if Mama was right outside, Tsukushi judged it would be another minute or two before she actually stormed into her room. Knowing that, she almost jumped out of the snow white bed and run out before her mother could skin her alive and lecture her.

Too bad she could barely move. Pain screamed through her body. Her shoulder was on fire, her arm felt as if it had been blown clean off. Sparing a glance, Tsukushi saw that her right shoulder and arm were covered thickly in gaze. Gaze meant there was bleeding. And judging from the way it was wrapped and the amount of wrapping, she came to only one conclusion.

Enji had shot her.

Mama skidded to a stop when she heard the screaming curse from her daughter's room. Beside her, Susumu chuckled. "She remembers." He murmured with a smile. The last two days his sis had come in and out of conciseness and each time, she'd had no idea what the hell had taken place. So, naturally, he was glad she remembered.

And the fact she'd want to, once again, kill Enji made her brother want to break out into gales of laughter. It'd serve the betraying ass-hole right if she _did_ kill him again.

Papa stared down the hall, looking at the room his dearest daughter was being held in. Susumu had left a message saying they were at the hospital but left no information about his or her state of health. Being parents, Mama and Papa had thought the worst and rushed over right that moment. But hearing his daughter set his fears at rest of her being close to death. Now, his newest fear was of said daughter. "See you at home!" He turned tail to run.

It took both son and wife to held Papa and drag him down the hall. "No! She'll be in rage! You remember last time she was in rage? I don't want to see such a sight again!"

Tsukushi was on her feet and fuming when her family came in. Her shoulders rose and fell with her angry panting. "Where is he! I'll kill him! Again!" She murmured something about digging up the corpse and burning it then throwing the ashes into a stew and eating it. Two nurses that were passing by gasped and hurried onto their patients. "That stupid little . . ."

"Now Tsukushi," Papa said cautiously. "Don't get carried away! You killed him before he killed you. All's well, right?"

Tortured screams of pain from Papa was her answer.

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The school was in an uproar that day. Seven times before lunch, all he heard from people was that a girl named 'Tsukushi' was in the hospital. Shot. One story was that she had had a fight with her bodyguard/lover and he had lost it, shooting down not only this 'Tsukushi' person, but three house maids, too. Another story was that she had failed to pay her pimp and he'd shot her several times. Another went like the shooter was her secret poor lover boy who'd become jealous of her family.

The more he heard, the less he believed. Whatever story was true, he didn't care. Yet the less he cared, the more people seemed to gossip. Finally, when the story had morphed into Tsukushi being a cross dresser, Doumyouji Tsukasa decided it would be better to just leave for the day.

School was hell, anyway. The last class he recalled attending was in sixth grade. Something about mystery, he believed. (A/N- History.) And besides, he'd decided that skipping was far better a way to live. Whatever he'd need to know about running a multibillion dollar corporation and the _yakuza_ he'd learn from his father and experience. Either way, school sucked.

"Oy, Tsukasa!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Doumyouji saw Soujirou, Akira and a drowsing Rui walk toward the gate. "Leaving without us, eh?" Akira asked when they stopped behind him.

"Yeah." Having given them an answer, he started walking again.

"Bad day, I guess." One of the boys said as they followed. At the moment he couldn't have cared less who had spoken and didn't intend to care. "Eh, Akira? Did you hear about Makino-san?"

"Naani? That weird girl that's always hanging around the offices?" He didn't sound very interested.

"Yeah. She's that chick everyone's talking about, that got shot."

"Whoa! Really? She really goes to this school?" Akira sounded interested now! "I thought it was a lie. Someone told me a while back Makino's daughter attended school here. Never seen her though."

Soujirou laughed. "Yeah. You'd think the daughter of 'Mama and Papa' Makino wouldn't be so mysterious."

Doumyouji stuck his fisted hands in the pocked of his coat. So that girl from earlier really was the Makino kid? Well, at least he knew who the hell to look for when she came back. "We've seen once or twice." Soujirou said, laughing like a goon. "She's looks as scary as her parents!"

When they reached Doumyouji's car, a classic in this day-n-age, he simply slid in, started the engine and was gone.

Rui smiled. "About time, you idiot." Crossing his arms behind his head, Rui walked off to Akira's car. "Common. I wanna get some sleep, eh?"

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Sitting at the desk in 'Conference Room B', Doumyouji looked over the file he'd been given the week before. Makino, Tsukushi. Seventeen, 160 cm, 48kg, blood type B. Brown eyes, brown hair. Everything checked out.

Damn, it really was _her_! She was not only the girl he'd seen as he had been leaving the day before, but she was a student at the same school he attended, a member by blood of the _yakuza_ Makino family, who had been asked to join by Tsukasa's father.

Letting go of the breathe, he only then realized he was holding, he set the file on the desktop in front of him. The file said she was a member of D.A.R.C., which was the special task unit within the Families that handled the assassination of 'trash'. Every member of D.A.R.C. was held in high regard to the Family leaders.

D.A.R.C. stood for Department of Assassination, Rebellion and Conspiracy. They handled the three chores that stood the largest amount of threat. Assassination of those who rebelled and assassination of conspirators. Getting killed was easy, but murdering was a bit more difficult. Planning and organization was the key points of a successful assassination.

And with her around, assassination would become more than difficult.

After all, how did you kill member of D.A.R.C. without being caught?

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"Be home by six, if possible!" Mama shouted. Three weeks of laying on her back, eating cheap hospital food, and healing from a wound that shouldn't have been made, Tsukushi was finally getting back to school.

Yay . . .

Tightening the second strap to the gun holster on her left thigh, she grabbed her bag and hurried down stairs. The new bodyguard to replace Enji stood at the door, politely opened it for her and bowed. Well, that was better. All Enji had done was open the door for himself first.

Stupid prick should have been less obvious. Though he was her bodyguard for nearly a year, and brief background check had proven her father right. Two months before Enji had turned betrayer, her father had said himself Enji had the instincts of a cop. It was true. Eight years on the force, and two years undercover agent. The son of a bitch had covered his tracks at first, but got lazy.

"Miss Tsukushi." Kazami said as she passed. She smiled and hopped down the steps to the waiting car. "Would you like an escort?"

"Err . . .No, I'm good." Cheerfully, she waved and said her goodbyes.

Once they were off though, she sighed and frowned. "Sweet, but a little over zealous." She heard the driver's quiet chuckle and smiled a little.

Knowing there would be a crowd of people wanting to know just what the truth was about her injury, she ordered the driver to drop her off at the front gates, unlike the normal routine of her getting out at the corner to walk.

Was she shot by a lover bodyguard? A pimp? A john? Stupid kids. Makiko-chan, one of her few friends at Eitoku Academy had told her all the rumors. At least one was close to being truth. Enji _was _a bodyguard. Lover? Not so much.

"Tsukushi-chan!" To her left, Makiko came in quick, grabbing her by the shoulders and hugged her. When Tsukushi yelped, Makiko jumped back and gasped. "Oops. Gomen!"

Tsukushi laughed. "Well, since you were happy I'm back, I'll let it slide." Makiko's head shot up. Her eyes were tearing up, but not tears of sadness or fear.

Makiko was trying not to laugh. "So, did your pimp get pissed you spent the money on a toy?"

They were both cracking up as they walked to their lockers. Three girls stood off to one side, staring at her intently. Ignoring them, Tsukushi took her books, a pencil box and one of her many toys from her locker. When she closed it, she saw almost half the school staring at her now.

Two boys whispered something, giggling after. Another group of girls glared at her; if looks could kill, she'd be nothing but bones. "Hostile much?" she whispered to Makiko, who was looking around at the crowd.

Suddenly a girl, a freshmen it looked like, second year at most, hurried up to her and bowed. When her bright brown eyes looked into Makino's, she almost frowned. "Are- Are you T . . .Tsukushi?"

"Hai."

The girl's eyes widen and her arms extended. She held a letter. When Tsukushi took it slowly the girl blushed and run off. "Err . . .okay." Makiko said, taking the letter and looking at it.

_So I'm a hero to some, for some unearthly reason, and a disease to others. _

Man school sucked.

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And so does the story! Okay, next chapter, we get into the fun, creepy stuff! Do I have to? Yes! Why? Because I can. I know, my second chapters always suck, I'm sure.

Review. If it sucks, PLEASE tell me. I hate everything I write so other people have to tell me this stuff!


	3. Conference Room B

**EDIT: I have combined this chapter with what was next, so please read the second half, if you've read the first. Sorry, but both chapters were SO SHORT! So, now, its just one chapter.**

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I'm a poor duck, and you want to sue me? Ducks don't own stuff! Not even anime!**

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**Chapter Two: Conference Room B**

"'You are my role model!'" Makiko read the letter given to Tsukushi earlier that day in a high-pitched voice. "'I wish I could be just like you!'" Laughing in a way Tsukushi would have described as cruel if she hadn't know Makiko, her friend set the note inside the open locker. Tsukushi chuckled and pulled out her bag.

"You are evil, Makiko."

"Yes, yes, I know." Flicking her wrist at the 'complement', she smirked. "In any case, I'm outta here. You gonna swing by tonight?"

Grabbing up her bag from the floor beside her, Tsukushi shook her head. "Got work to do. But I'll give you a call at ten, cool?"

"Mag." Makiko said giving a peace sign. "Don't be late tomorrow, though. Later."

"Later." She called as her friend swung around students, all rushing out to go home or shopping or something. Not caring much either way, she packed in the last of her school books she didn't really plan to do anyway into her beat up bag and turned to leave the back way, trying to avoid anyone who might want to mob her.

But luck wasn't on her side today. Monday curse? Had to be the reason all hell had been inviting itself to ruin her day. Because as she stepped into the main hallway that lead to the emergency stairs, she, quite literally, bumped into the last person she would have wanted to run into that particular day.

"Ata!" Tsukushi half yelled as her injured shoulder slammed directly into the boy's midsection. The boy hissed, put an arm out to grab her and happened to grab onto the same injury she thought may have just been reopened. They looked up to glare at one another at the same moment, their eyes meeting for a brief second before . . .

"What the hell do you think you're doing, woman!" Tsukushi's eyes went wide and she jumped back in surprise. The dark haired boy, a good foot or two taller than she was, nailed her with an evil stare so vicious she almost wanted to scream and run.

Almost.

"Nani!" she shouted back, fisting her hands as she gave him her own death glare. "Are _you_ blaming _me_? You ran into me!"

Not being able to decide whether to hit him or just walk away, she threw her arm out and pointed at his none-too-pretty face. "Don't blame others because you don't wanna fess up!" With a final snort and nod, Tsukushi crossed her arms and stormed off, none too happy to have had to come to class today.

Watching the girl stomp her way down the hall, Doumyouji just stared after her.

Had she just . . . No, no one yelled at him. Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe Rui was wearing off on him. Shaking his head in semi-confusion, he started walking the way he had originally. Then stopped.

"Crap." He murmured when the realization hit. Wasn't that . . .

_Okay_, he thought, _Soujirou and Akira are right, I am a little slow._ But he simply kept walking. He had enough time to take care of his business.

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Ah, but Fate is a funny little lass, she is. Not but an hour later, Doumyouji clicked onto the new email labeled 'O.J. and M.J. get down and dirty'. It still made him laugh. The header was really from HQ, usually concerning the D.A.R.C. operations. Speed-reading thru the email, he scooped up his jacket from behind his computer chair.

_As of 7 PM on Monday, March 15th, two new task force teams will be assembled. Members three, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-three and thirty-eight are to report to 'Conference Room A'. Members six and thirteen to seventeen will report to 'Conference Room B'. Those who have missions assigned to them for Monday will be replaced. Bring all paperwork on current assignments, and, please, keep all information strictly need-to-know. _

_-Urara_

Shutting his laptop, grabbing it up along with his cell phone, keys and 9mm, Doumyouji started downstairs just as there was a pounding on the front door. One of the maids answered before he could and three boys strolled inside.

Soujirou, his arms behind his head in a lazy fashion, grinned. "On your way to the office, Tsukasa?"

With a quick, rude nod and continued outside and to the car the three had arrived in. Rui was in the front seat and had fallen into a light sleep the moment the car was in motion. Akira and Soujirou were in the back with Doumyouji in between them, checking through his files. Seven assignments officially and one he had hidden in his trench coat. Unofficial. _Very _unofficial.

When they arrived at the _yakuza_ building, hidden behind Higimi Industry, he didn't bother to wait for the other three. Waking up Rui would take a couple of minutes and he had to speak to Urara privately before the meeting in less than ten minutes.

He stepped into the elevator just as his mother and sister stepped out of another. The doors closed, he not even knowing the two were standing just feet away. "Tsubaki, just do as I've told you. She is a problem, and I hate loose ends."

"She has nothing to do with this! You can't just exterminate her because she will not follow your orders!" Tsubaki didn't care that half the lobby was staring at her. Most didn't blink an eye over talk about assassinations. Most _were_ assassins. "She's not a real threat to you."

"A threat to the Families is a threat to me." The wife to leader of the Doumyouji family, Kaede's cold eyes didn't shift or turn away, but stared into her daughter's. "Either you do, or I'll get Tsukasa to."

"He wouldn't and you know it!"

Dismissing the subject, Kaede walked away, not noticing the rage in Tsubaki's eyes.

Tsukasa, meanwhile, stepped into the room with a sign saying '_Conference Room B'_. Urara sat at a glass desk with a stack of folders spread out over it. Her glasses were lying on a book and a pen held behind one ear as she rubbed her eyes.

"Not sleeping?" he asked in a tone Urara laughingly thought sounded like he didn't really care. Smiling in her sweet way, she motioned for him to sit as she replaced her glasses.

"Just a day filled with paperwork. So, is there something you needed?" She glanced at her watch. "Our meeting is in only a few minutes. Can it wait?" When he shook his head, she shrugged. "Then please, spill your heart to Urara."

Doumyouji smirked. Sort of. Urara always made him smirk. Always pushed him to be something more than his surface-self. A great woman, an even better assassin. Retired assassin, he corrected himself. Now she just ran the whole damned department. DARC was, in most every way, hers.

And he was damned glad about that, though he'd never admit it.

"It's about one of my current missions." Tossing down the file, he pulled out a carton of cigarettes, noticed it was empty and threw it at the trashcan.

Looking down, Urara nodded. "Well, this _is_ a problem." She said quietly. Debating to tell him now or let him stew a few minutes, she pushed it back to him. "I know what you want to know. Are you to bring this mission up during the meeting." At his nod, she continued. "No. For three reasons.

"One, your friends are not to know about this, along with the reason for her assassination. This is not a NTK(A/N: need-to-know), it is a FYEO. Only you and I and the other Family leaders know about this. So keep it quiet.

"Two, this girl is apart of the Families, therefore has special rights. Should she or her family find out, there could be more blood spilt than necessary. So, that is another reason to keep your mouth shut."

He nodded, slipped the folder into his coat pocket just as his three friends walked into the room. He glanced over to look at them then turned back and in a whisper asked "What is the third reason I shouldn't bring this information to knowledge?"

Urara pointed to the door.

Makino Tsukushi, the woman whose file he currently held to his chest, walked into the room.

"Come in, M-6." Urara said cheerfully, smiling at the girl. "Now that everyone's here, lets begin."

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"Well," Urara said, standing at the head of the long, metal table, her hands crossed daintily in front of her, she waited a moment until an image appeared on the screen behind her. "Now that you are here, I'll begin." A mug-shot of an elderly man with peppered hair and laugh lines around his eyes and mouth popped up. His personal info was listed below the picture and past crimes below those.

"This is Takaede Hijime. He is forty-six years old, five foot three inches. Two hundred and twenty pounds. And he killed two of our inside reps for _Takemudo Corporations_. Last Wednesday Takaede opened fire, in public, on our agents and has not been charged. Due to government cover."

Another picture came up. Urara went into detail about this man, and the six more to follow. Each had killed, been involved in, or planned the assassination or murder of various important people within the Families. The second to last, Tsukushi shifted and growled.

Enji. The little betraying bastard who was now six feet under.

Doumyouji glanced over to see the girl gritting her teeth. He lifted an eyebrow. Could some of the rumors have been true? Something to look into.

Urara sat after the last picture disappeared. "These, gentlemen -and Tsukushi- . . ." She added with a smile. "Are your new targets. Two for each of you." Lifting a stack of folders from her desk, Urara handed two to each of them. "We have discovered that each of these men, conveniently, will be attending the same ball in three days hence. Prepare to take them out there and, please, do it quietly."

Makino threw one of hers back. "We don't need to worry about this one." She murmured harshly.

Akira chuckled. "So confident, my dear?"

Makino didn't frown, nor did she smile. "No, I've already taken him out."

The two boys, Soujirou and Akira, glanced at each other, then back at her. "You killed someone ahead of schedule?" _He says it like it's a mortal sin._

"No. I killed him before he could kill me." Tsukushi stared off into space for a moment. "The girl he was supposed to be the bodyguard to? The one he tried to kill?" She pointed at herself. "That was me." Standing, she looked up at Urara. "Are we done here?" The woman nodded. "Good."

Doumyouji frowned. "You killed him? You're sure?"

Tsukushi paused at the door. Then she turned around, walked up to him, unzipped her coat and pulled back her shirt collar. The white gaze was already beginning to bleed through, only making her point clearer. "He shot me in the shoulder . . . I shot him in the head."

Zipping up her coat again, Makino stormed out of the room.

Akira smiled. "She made her point, didn't she?" Soujirou chuckled and stood. "Lets go get some lunch, shall we?"

"We shall." Akira said, following his friend out the door. Rui and Doumyouji sat where they were, Urara watching them. "You boys aren't hungry?" Rui shrugged. "And you, Doumyouji-sama?"

Tsukasa slid his file closer, opened it, glanced through its contents then nodded. "I guess this means I'll be working double shifts." He murmured to himself.

Rui looked at him with questioning eyes. Doumyouji ignored him and stood.

Tsukushi was already at the elevator when Doumyouji appeared beside her. She glanced up at him before looking forward again. The doors opened and the two stepped inside. When the doors were closed and the elevator moving, Doumyouji finally spoke. "I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to be rude."

She nodded but didn't speak.

Doumyouji cleared his throat. "Since we're all going to attack at the same time, do you want to get together with the others and me to talk tactics?"

There was silence for several moments. The doors dinged open but neither moved to get out. Finally, she turned to him, cocked her head and a hip, and nodded. "Sure. That would be a good idea. When and where?"

Doumyouji took her arm and lead her to the building's entrance. "We were going to meet at a little food shop down the street, talk it over there. I'll walk with you."

Half a block later, Tsukushi's arm was beginning to go numb in the boy's vise-like grip. "Umm, Doumyouji."

"What?"

"I can't feel my arm . . ."

Doumyouji stopped, looked down at his hand still gripping her upper arm, and forced himself to let go. "Sorry." He murmured as he started off again. At the corner, he crossed left to a little dinner that looked as rich and high-class as a bowl of dirt. Even as she wondered why he would ever step foot into this kind of place, she saw two girls behind the counter flirting with the two boys she'd seen with Doumyouji in the meeting room.

With a quick tap on the back of their heads with a file folder, Soujirou and Akira turned around to glare at Doumyouji. "Tsukasa!" Soujirou complained as he and the red-head followed the boy toward a corner booth. "What did you do that for. We were trying to get you a date!"

This time, a file folder wasn't what hit them. Doumyouji introduced the two to his fists. "Sit down and shut up, you perverts!" He roared, taking his own seat. Tsukushi somehow ended up sitting in the window seat next to Soujirou. "'Ello, kitten." He whispered. "How are you."

Tsukushi stared at him then pinched his thigh. "OW! What was that for?" he demanded in a hurt tone of voice.

"She must not like your come ons." Akira said in a silky voice Tsukushi just knew the girls must fall for. "So, Makino-san, you decided to join our little planning party?"

Shrugging, Tsukushi looked out the window. "I was invited."

"Oi! Rui!" Soujirou turned and waved to the boy coming in. "You get a ride." The boy simply nodded before plopping into the booth behind Tsukushi and Soujirou. Tsukushi turned and looked down and the already dozing boy.

Doumyouji cleared his throat. "Who's going first?"

Akira laid out his folder. "Well," he started. "My guy will, by the information given here, be circling the room with the alcohol. He's into drugs, food, women, and booze. He'll be easy. I can get him at any time."

Soujirou pointed to the other. "And Mr. Hijime? When will you get him?"

"During dinner. His weakness is his lack of safety. Thinks he's above being assassinated at a public party."

Soujirou nodded and opened his own folder, looking through the information. "Mine are too easy. They both are players, they both hate to carry around heavy fire arms, or no guns at all, and both are complete morons. They will be together all through dinner. They seem to be like brothers and they still live in the same house. Their wives and children will not be there, so that means no banshee screams when I kill 'em."

Tsukushi frowned. "Neither of you have said _how_ you'll do it . . ."

Soujirou and Akira laughed. Doumyouji looked up at her to explain. "Its our way of competing. Whoever comes up with the most creative, interesting, or entertaining kill gets a prize. What prize, you never know, but it's just a way to keep us all aware of what the others are up to."

"But that'll require looking at them, won't it? Then you might lose track of your own target. Not to mention we have to attack at once or the crowds will freak and the others will realize someone got taken down." She looked at Doumyouji for this explanation as well.

He smirked. "We won't be attacking at once, nor too far apart from each other. Just take 'em out, drag them out of the way, and move on." He waited for her nodded then continued. "Since you only have one, we'll let the lady go first." The two boys in the booth with them nodded.

Tsukushi then turned around again. "And you, Hanazawa-san?" she asked politely.

He didn't answer immediately. But after several silent minutes, Rui looked up. "I've got two pricks with nothing but a salary of 10k a year. These guys are going down after everyone else, but before Makino-san's."

"All right." Akira said cheerfully. "Tsukasa, your turn. Please, share with the class."

Doumyouji glared but started talking. "We've all got guys too easy to take out. Mine are a little more complex, but not difficult. So, here's how we'll order 'em . . ."

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Author: Sorry for an confuzzling. I was so busy with school and the last chapter was short and I wanted two parts...finally, I was just like 'Screw It!' So, here's the rest.


	4. Let's Crash A Party, Shall We?

Ello, sorry for any confusion last chapter. I thought I'd posted chapter three, then it said I didn't and I wanted to combine what I had for three and four into just three. Anywho!

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Japanese Mafia, Hana Yori Dango, Xellos' "That's a secret' from Slayers, nor Enji from Darkside Blues, or the last name ideas from Hana Kimi. I do own the story title and the story idea though! Whee!**

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**Chapter Three: Let's Crash A Party, Shall We!**

"This is Hot Wheel calling to you, Big Momma." Soujirou said into his headset while he arranged his gear.

"Why the hell am I 'Big Momma'?" Akira growled into his own headset as he changed clothes.

Doumyouji almost shouted at them to shut up before controlling himself. "Dog here."

Giggles from Soujirou, Akira, Makino echoed in his head as he loaded his rifle.

"Lady Luck in." Tsukushi murmured around her laugh while she watched their targets make polite at the party below.

"Silent Sleeper . . ." Rui yawned but didn't say 'in', 'here'; or anything else, for that matter, as he was already sounding like a half-dosing insomniac.

"Ok, how come Rui gets the cool name?" Akira asked accusingly.

"Look, these names were all Urara's idea. Complain to her." Tsukushi said in an adult tone to silence all retorts.

Doumyouji smiled when he heard the boys murmuring that she was right. She was one fierce lady when you ticked her off. He'd discovered that much in the last three days. It seemed all the information he'd gained about her in those days seemed to always come _from _her. His research was getting almost nothing compared to her own accounts.

It was getting harder and harder to kill her . . .

Pushing away that insane thought, Doumyouji addressed the lot of them. "Is everyone ready?" He asked with his deep voice, sounding even scarier in the earphones.

Akira murmured "Not quite . . ." The sound of a zipper was noticeable even from the headsets. "All right, ready."

Tsukushi shook her head. "Mimasaka-san? What the . . . No, better yet, don't tell me."

"Good, it would ruin the surprise."

Tsukushi shivered. "I'm ready. Let's go boys."

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Soujirou walked calmly through the party-goers, exchanging 'Hello's and 'How's the wife' remarks from people he didn't know, nor did they know him. With his briefcase in hand, he walked toward his mark. With a glance up to where Makino was sitting in the air vents above him, he winked, knowing she had her eyes set on him. "Getting a good look?" he asked sweetly.

Tsukushi shook her head. "You know it." She murmured. Pulling out her laptop, she started typing silently in the vent.

_Hot WheelTarget:Time: Creativity Score: _

_Target:Time:Creativity Score:_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score:_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score:_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score:_

The score sheet was laid out just like Soujirou and Akira had showed her. This, they said, was a kind of game to them, scoring their kills with creativity points. The list was made up of code names, targets successfully terminated, time from the start of their 'project' to finish of each of the terminations, and how many points, on a scale of 0 to 100, each assassin received for their creativity of the kill.

She had a list of other 'group projects' the boys had had before, and from what she'd seen, Akira was winning by a long shot. In second place, of course, was Soujirou. Rui and Doumyouji, it seemed, liked doing things without flourish, because they both had scores well below the two wild and crazy assassin boys before them.

Grinning, she looked back down at Soujioru. This was bound to be interesting.

Soujirou, now Miasaki-san, stepped in front of the two men walking around the room. "Mr. Fujita, Mr. Kaifumi?" The two men looked up at him. "I'm Miasaki, from the Anti-Bomb Committee in Tokyo. I hear you two wish to make a donation?"

Both took to the bait like a fish to water. "Oh!" Kaifumi said, smiling proudly. "Yes, that would be us."

Soujirou smiled. "Would you both like to make that donation now? I'll be in town only tonight, and was hoping I could take your donations tonight. That e-mail you sent was very interesting. You both wish to stop the bombing in the Middle East, yes?"

"Those Americans!" Fujita said fiercely. "Think they can bomb . . ."

"Yes, yes." Soujirou interrupted in a non-offensive manner. "Shall we do this in another place? After all, the money you said you wish to donate is a large sum. Not something you would want to sign a check for so close to others . . ."

"Yes! Lets go this way . . ."

"I have a room prepared, gentlemen. Please," he said with a business smile. "Follow me, good sirs."

Akira chuckled in Tsukushi's ear. "I have to admit . . .He is one good kiss-ass." Tsukushi giggled.

Soujirou lead the two into the room just under Tsukushi. She glanced down from her stationary place in the vent at the grill just to her left, into the room. Soujirou set his briefcase down, unlocked it and took out his gun with a silencer. "Gentlemen. This is a sweet goodbye from the Families."

Tsukushi didn't hear the gun, but certainly saw it being fired. Both men died with a certain degree of surprise on his face. As he began to clean up, Tsukushi typed out his score.

_Hot WheelTarget: bothTime: 6:24 24 min.Creativity Score: 55_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target: Time:Creativity Score: _

"How'd I do?" he asked into the headset and the vent.

"Only fifty-five. The first half was very entertaining, though."

Soujirou sighed. "Why'd we give her score keeper duty?"

"Cause I'm a girl and I'm honest. Hey," she added, "You guys get to judge me. So just sit tight. Okay, next up. That's you, Mimasaka-san."

"I can't wait to see this!" Soujirou said, smiling up at the girl in the vent. "He normally has the most entertaining, if not the most moronic ideas."

Tsukushi smiled and turned to look out the vent over the ballroom down at Mimasaka and nearly feel out of her perch.

Akira was wearing a skirt.

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Akira didn't so much mind the skirt, fake boobs, skin-tight bra to hold said fake boobs, make-up, and hair pins. It was the high heels he wasn't too thrilled about. It was his own idea, though, so he really couldn't complain. But he looked differently at the women he so often appreciated in heels.

They sure did go throw a lot to make a man look!

Through his headset he heard the now familiar female giggle. "Makino! Why do you wear these things?" he asked.

"Oh, I only wear the bra, hair pins and skirt. The high heels I avoid." He heard her giggle some more. "I normally wear flats or boots."

"And the boobs, I suspect?" he asked. "You avoid them, too?"

"If you were up here, I'd slap you for that."

He hissed at her. "Where is the first one?"

"Ten o'clock. Yours."

"Alright. Here I go." Akira slapped on a girly smile, a swing to his non-existing hips, a bounce to his step, and a giggle to his voice.

Tsukushi shook her head. "You guys are so insane."

Doumyouji watched the vent from behind a glass of wine. He could barely see her, but then, he was looking for her. To anyone who wasn't looking for a person in an air vent, there was nothing to see. He saw the light of the glare on the computer screen on her face and he shifted in his chair.

What if someone could see her? What if she was seen? How would she explain her being in a ventilation shaft in the middle of this? What . . .

Doumyouji swallowed the wine and rolled his shoulders. They'd planned this for days. With each of their skills, nothing would, or could, go wrong in this.

But there was still a little butterfly in his stomach at the thought of her getting caught. If the cops got her . . .

"Damn it . . ." he whispered to himself. This was getting a little out of hand. Clearing his throat, he asked a passing waitress for another drink. When it was brought he thanked the woman and handed her a tip. Nothing out of the odd. Many people at these functions tipped the waiters. Some more for show, some less because they thought it a necessary, but silly task. Doumyouji paid a decent tip so she wouldn't really remember him. Better than too much, too little, or nothing at all.

Nothing was going to go wrong.

"My boob slipped." Akira said shyly into his headset, making Doumyouji roll his eyes and curse.

He heard Makino's voice give him instructions on how to fix the problem without being obvious about it. And that familiar, nearly always present giggle in her voice. If Makino was at all at peace with her life, that giggle-full voice was there. Since he'd met her, he'd only heard a serious voice from her when she spoke to him.

It hit him then, in that moment.

"Fuck . . ."

Akira walked up to his target just as Doumyouji jumped to his feet. "Hello." He . . . She . . . said to the group of men. One was Takaede Hijime, his first target of the night. "Hijime-sama," Akira said shyly, like a girl who knew the danger but couldn't help but address the man. "This drink was sent to you by a Miss Yuriko Asai. She wishes you a good time tonight." With a wink, Akira turned and walked away, though not without several of the 'gentlemen' pinching a little tushy.

"What the hell, Akira?" Soujirou shouted. "Aren't you gonna kill him?"

"Wait for it." Tsukushi said.

"You know!?" Akira asked her.

"Sweet Mimasaka-san. Despite my hobbies and dress, I'm a woman. Mostly only women use poison, but . . . Let's just say that with the girly outfit, I had an idea."

"Smart girl." Rui said, shocking everyone. Where the hell was Rui?, all four wondered in a brief, shocked silence.

From the group of men, cheering filled the room. "Cheers, gentlemen!"

"Damn it! If he dies now . . ." Soujirou started to say.

"He won't." Akira assured him. "It takes two hours for total system shut down. By then we'll all be in bed, sleeping peacefully. Plus," he said proudly. "It wasn't from me, a waitress, was it? It was from another woman. Even if an argument came up that it was still made by the waitress, the waitress isn't around, now, is she? No name, and no face, seeing as men like that don't look at a waitress' faces."

"You mean rich, high-class men who drink too much and think all women are their play things?" Makino murmured good-humoredly.

Akira blushed and paused in the hall to look innocently up at the girl.

"Second target, Mimasaka-san." She

"Aye-aye, m'lady."

This time, the victim fell over the balcony of his room. Thanks to Akira's wonderful skills with women, he used everything he knew _he_ liked used on him against this man that reminded Akira so much of himself. Charms, charms, charms.

"Second down, and below crews are cleaning up the mess." Akira confirmed.

Tsukushi typed out his score, as well. "You seriously had a cleaning crew? How'd you get Urara to give you a cleaning crew?"

"Charms, Makino, charms."

"Of course . . . What was I thinking?"

_Hot WheelTarget: both onceTime: 6:24 24 min.Creativity Score: 55_

_Big MommaTarget:one then oneTime:8:05 101 min.Creativity Score: 80_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target: Time:Creativity Score: _

"Very nice. Eighty." Tsukushi told the boy.

"No fair!" Soujirou complained. "You just voted that score for the girl costume."

"Uh, yeah! How many assassins would gladly become a girl for the sake of a mission as easy as this? Admit it. . ." She grinned down at Akira as he passed under her and gave him a thumbs up. "Not many have that kind of ego. To think he looks good as a male _and_ female."

Akira frowned and glared at her, but shrugged. "True." He mouthed.

"All righty, then. Next up. Doumyouji."

There was a long silence from his end. Tsukushi adjusted her volume and listened. "Doumyouji?" Still no answer. Looking out from the vent, she searched for that silly head of hair she'd come to recognize over the last few days.

She couldn't find him . . .

"Doumyouji? Where are you?" Scanning the area again, she located both his targets and the table he had been sitting at for the last half hour. So where was he now?

"Damn it, Tsukasa!" she hissed and was about to type something when she heard him.

"I'm going." From the wall beneath her, Tsukushi saw him push away into the crowd. Why the hell had he been under the vent? And why hadn't he answered her? Frowning, she shifted in her spot again and moved her crossed legs up to rest on the wall so she was in a 'U' shape in the vent, her laptop on her chest as she existed out of the program she'd been in.

"'Bout time." She murmured to him. "Do you have a lock on your target?"

"Yeah," was the only reply she got.

Doumyouji didn't have the sweet faced girl look, nor the easy-going donation collector businessman thing going for him. He looked like what his was. An extremely dangerous man. But it worked for him. It worked very well.

Tsukushi watched him closely as he moved easily through the crowd, cutting like a hot knife through butter to his first target. As Doumyouji walked toward the man, Tsukushi tapped into the information bank for the man. The young businessman was only twenty-six years old. And while normally that didn't matter to her, it struck her as odd that such a man would be able to bomb one of the Families' main shipping company buildings without a network. Inside jobs. So, what was so important about this guy? Shouldn't they be going for the traitor inside the Families?

Her brows came down together as she glanced through the information. He wasn't as guilty as they must be . . .

Shaking her head, she looked down into the ballroom just as Doumyouji caught up to the man. He tapped on his shoulder and the man turned his smiling face to look up at Doumyouji. In a brief second, Tsukushi saw a change in the man's face. An emotion like . . . all-out fear. Terror. Absolute terror.

He knew. This man, Yume Mizuki, he _knew_ why Doumyouji was there. Tsukushi sat up and watched closely as Doumyouji wrapped his arm around the man's shoulders and walked him out of the room to where Soujirou had brought his own targets.

On the way, he stopped to shake the hand of his other target, then two more people, just for effect. It was right after this she realized she wasn't getting any audio from him. None at all.

"Fuck." She grabbed her gun and held it close to her body as he lead the man into the room below her. "You guys really are fucking insane!" When they walked in, she heard a murmur from the man. Maybe Doumyouji was trying to keep her from hearing the man because he started to raise his voice.

"I'm not here to collect back taxes, Mizuki! Only to reward you for pissing off the Bitch. Good night." Without warning Doumyouji pulled a rather wicked looking knife from under his jacket. With the inhuman speed, he slit the man's throat, cut his middle, then his thighs.

Tsukushi stared down at him. He looked up at her. He turned away, wiped the blood off his hand and knife, and walked back out into the main room. Somehow, not a drop of blood had touched him, not even his long, strong-looking hands. But the look on his face was . . . gone. There wasn't any sign of anything. And even assassins sometimes had some kind of expression. Calm, tranquil.

But this was blank. Dead.

Tsukushi released her death grip on her gun watched as he crossed to the stairs. The next target had an appointment at 11 o'clock. Twenty minutes. From the appoint location to the party, Doumyouji had timed it to take roughly fifteen minutes, meaning Mr. Whoeverthiswas had only a few minutes before he would have to leave. Meaning he had only a few minutes before he had to die.

But instead of the target, Tsukushi couldn't take her eyes off her Doumyouji. His eyes were focused as he watched the man shake hands and give hugs and kiss the cheeks of many as he walked outside. This little bastard had killed the daughter of one of the Families and was also a wealthy politician whom was thought to be the next big shot in the world. The next Robin Hood.

But at the price of a girl's life.

Her breathe caught as she watched the boy. He was eye-level to her on the second floor balcony. Gulping in a breathe, she cleared her mind of pointless thoughts like that one. "Doumyouji . . .Can you get him from the room? You're positive his driver will take the route east, not west?" Didn't want the guy driving the wrong way. They had set up shop in one of the hotel's rooms that faced east, not the front, so Doumyouji could shoot to kill and leave without any witnesses. So if the guy . . .

"Positive."

Tsukushi nodded despite the fact no one could see her. "All right, then. Have at it."

"Do you really think my butt looks big?"

Tsukushi jumped. "What the hell!?"

"Oh, sorry, Makino-san. Soujirou said he thought my ass looked very round in this get-up and…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Rui? Are you awake?"

"Mumph . . ." came a quiet reply.

"Well, get up. In about two minutes, its your turn."

Swallowing hard at the strange feeling in her gut, the next score was typed up.

_Hot WheelTarget: both onceTime: 6:24 24 min.Creativity Score: 55_

_Big MommaTarget:one then oneTime:8:05 101 min.Creativity Score: 80_

_DogTarget: one then oneTime:8:43 38 min.Creativity Score: 40_

_Target:Time:Creativity Score: _

_Target: Time:Creativity Score: _

"What'd he get?" One of the two boys asked.

"Forty. Lack of creativity."

"I'm better than Lord Doumyouji?" She thought Soujirou said. "Just cause I'm older, I bet."

"I've got eighty, so don't get too high on success."

"You're older, Nishikado-san?" She was a little surprised for some reason. That taught her for skipping the age factor in her comrades, eh? She'd assumed Doumyouji or Hanazawa-san were the older ones.

"Yep." Soujirou said cheerfully. "Older than all of ya!" For some reason, Soujirou throwing out a peace sign came to mind.

A shot echoed through the room from outside. At least, that's what everyone at the ball thought. She, on the other hand, knew it had come from both outside and inside the hotel. And once again, she wondered if he had thought this out. Didn't he realize the authority would want inside the hotel to search the rooms on the side of the building in which Mr. Politician was shot?

"Not likely, but if so, he'd better tell me now." She mumbled to herself.

"I have a guy taking the fall for the time being."

Doumyouji.

Looking up, her eyes met his from across the ballroom again. For a second, she thought he'd lift up a gun a shoot her, his gaze was so frightening. But that wasn't gonna happen. "You got a forty," she said quietly.

He acted as if he'd been hit, flinching to one side and shaking his head. An action she didn't expect. It was kinda cute, too, the way he gave a mock sigh and shrug. "I've never had such a low score." He bowed and walked down the stairs.

Now came the easy part. Rui didn't show any sign of caring about what was going on outside, but both his targets were, conveniently, standing side-by-side. "Told you these guys it would be easy."

With a quick stab to the back, the men stumbled and fell. Rui caught both and, with the crowd looking at everything but him, dragged them off into the room that already held three bodies in nice plastic bags. "Well?"

Tsukushi blinked. She'd seen him from her spot, but she was still a little shocked no one had noticed him stab two guys and drag them off.

Such was Hanazawa Rui.

She didn't have the heart to give him less than a thirty.

_Hot WheelTarget: both onceTime: 6:24 24 min.Creativity Score: 55_

_Big MommaTarget:one then oneTime:8:05 101 min.Creativity Score: 80_

_DogTarget: one then oneTime:8:43 38 min.Creativity Score: 40_

_Silent SleeperTarget:bothTime:8:45 27 sec.Creativity Score: 35_

_Target: Time:Creativity Score: _

Tsukushi relayed the score and Rui just yawned. Akira seemed on cloud nine. "Yes! I'm so gonna get the prize!"

"Why don't we wait and see what Makino gets." Doumyouji said. Tsukushi smiled, unhooked her laptop, grabbed her bag and slid out of the vent into the room below. Stepping over the body on one of Soujirou's targets, she tied her sweater around her waist, grabbed out her kit and went to work.

"Makino?" Soujirou knocked on the door.

"Common in." When the four boys walked in and saw her, they blinked. As she passed them, she shoved her laptop into Doumyouji's hands. "Judge fairly," she said with a wink. Doumyouji, Akira, and Soujirou all stared after her. Even Rui looked a little shell-shock.

"Were those . . ." Rui shook his head. "I think she's gonna win."

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The F4 gathered around the computer as they looked up the data bank on Tsukushi's target.

"Thirty-nine; five feet, four inches. Two hundred lbs. Has a black belt in three types of martial arts. Is the head of the medical center in Tokyo. He's the father of three –legit– kids. And the father of six, damn, illegit kids. Dude is a bastard!" Soujirou growled. "Raped two girls from the Families last year, killed one, and then . . ." He couldn't read any more. The things he's done to the dead girl were too terrible.

"Wow, Makino better be careful. This dude would do some pretty fucked up things to her if he catches her." Akira said. "And we don't have visual like she did on us."

"Yes, you do."

"Makino?"

"Yep. One the bottom left is another folder." They clicked on it and sure enough, it was Tsukushi, sitting on the corner, her hands in her lap, her legs spread out on the sidewalk. Smiling she threw them a peace sign. "Get ready boys, my rabbit is about to get skinned."

"Hey, Makino, what exactly is your plan?"

She put her finger to her lips. "That's . . .a secret."

Akira sighed ad shook his head. "Is she into role play, or is it just me?"

She was risking her life doing this. All of them had just risked getting caught. She was risking her _life_. Doumyouji's fists shook as he watched her on the screen. What the hell was wrong with her!

Turning around, Doumyouji stormed out of the room.

"Oi, Tsukasa!" Soujirou and Akira turned to see him leaving. "What . . .?"

Rui squatted down closer to the laptop when the man that was Tsukushi's target stepped up to her. She smiled innocently up at him and when he offered her a hand, she took it and allowed him to lead her into the hotel.

Watching closely, Rui noticed a man walk in behind the target, look around, and smirk. That was what Tsukushi was doing dressed up in short-shorts, and bra-like top, flip-flops and a cute-sy hair-do.

She was planning for him to take her to his room . . .

"Shit." Jumping up, Rui raced out to the lobby, where Doumyouji stood, looking for Makino.

"Tsukasa!" He yelled. Doumyouji turned and met Rui half way. "He took her up stairs! She doesn't know that there's a guy with him. Tsukasa, they'll . . ."

Without another word, the two took off toward the stairs.

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**Author:** Boy, my butt is numb. Sitting typing this . . . Oh, right. Did you like? It was a little Soujirou/Akira talking much, but if you really look into their characters, they _are_ really talkative! Anywho, hope you enjoyed. I did!


	5. To all my readers

HI, everyone. I know it's been, well, FOREVER, but I've had my senior year of high school to go through, I had to clean out my computer a while back, put ALL my stuff onto disks, and I've been reading far too many books, so my brain has been soaking in vampire romance novels. However! I believe I need to get back into my stories, not only because I need to give you guys the stories, but because I need to work on my responsibilities and these give me a responsibility to you all.

So, here we are. The next chapter. Hope it's good. I'm not sure where these next chapters will go. I mostly only have the ending planned out.

IF YOU SEE A PLOT ERROR, PLEASE TELL ME!

**Disclaimer: I'm running low, so we'll just say "**_**I DON'T OWN HANA YORI DANGO!"**_** There, now we can really move on!**

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

**Chapter Four: Complications**

She couldn't have enjoyed the pigtails more. They moved back and forth with every step and, though often getting in her way, were too adorable to resist. And from the F4's reactions downstairs, she must be pulling them off rather nicely.

The old guy next to her was smirking sickeningly at her and she beamed right on back, showing nothing but sweet-faced innocence. A lie anyone who knew her would detect in a second. Innocent was a word never to be confused with Makino Tsukushi of the Makino Family. Nope, she may look sweet and virginal … well, okay the virginal was true, but sweet was only an illusion. She'd killed more people than Cecil B. DeMille in her short lifespan. The last time she'd taken count was forty-nine. And for a seventeen year old high school girl, that was quite the body count.

And this was only the beginning for her. The Families wanted to keep her on as an assassin for as long as possible. That could mean all her life. In fact, it was very likely that she'd end her assassin days in a body bag or even in the slammer. She'd rather die than be locked up for 400 years, but hey. When her days serving the Families were done, _she'd_ be done. Easy as that.

Shaking off the thought of death or jail, Makino bounced around like a bouncy ball from one of those vending machines. Bounce, bounce, bounce. No doubt she was giving this perverted killer ideas as to what her last moments of breathe would be doing. After reading his profile, she was a little thrown off with seducing a man that raped, tortured, and killed little girls for pleasure.

Well, this sadistic son of a bitch was about to get what was coming to him.

It was eerie that the man beside her was thinking along the same lines. This little girl was about to get it, and get it hard from him. She thought she was clever, dressing up to look the part, but he knew the routines of assassin ass-fucks. This girl was about to get the fuck of her life from him and his man behind them. Then maybe he'd let her rest before doing her again, only this time with the knife his bodyguard was so fond of. Yeah, that'd show this little tease, wouldn't it?

He only wondered where the others were. Those four boys he'd been warned about before the party. Family scum. They'd find out shortly that you didn't fuck with him.

And this little child was going to learn that lesson first.

Smiling down at the shinning face of Makino Tsukushi, he opened his hotel room door and waved her in, then waited for his guard to join them before closing the door and locking it. Those four boys would just have to wait. He'd take care of them. They'd most likely wonder where their bitch was, but…

Tsukushi didn't blink an eye at the locked door, nor at the creepy smile on her target's face. But the bodyguard was a problem. He stood at near 6'8 and was a serious looking SOB. And it didn't help her nerves when his cold eyes scraped over her and he reached into his coat for an eleven inch blade that looked like it would be a real pain in the ass… or wherever these guys preferred it.

The target grinned and waved a hand at the bodyguard. "This is Jun-Fu. He'll be joining us for dinner tonight."

Tsukushi smiled that bright, sunlit smile at their evil faces. "Hello." She said sweetly.

"No need to be shy, little Makino." He chuckled when her eyes snapped up. "Oh, yes, I know you very well. I've seen you often enough. I didn't just grab two Family girls up on accident, dear girl. I _chose_ them. In fact, had I more time, I'd have come after you soon enough." He walked slowly toward her and ran a finger down her cheek. His eyes were dark, almost pitch black with blood lust. Or maybe it was simply evil. She really didn't care at the moment. She was locked in a room with two murderers. And the one before her was already reaching for the buttons of her shirt.

She swept an arm out and tried to deck him, but he moved with impossible speed under her fist, grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her arm behind her back. "Little wild cat. Pussy cat, really." He touched her face, nearly laughed when she jerked her head away from his fingers. "Don't struggle so, darling. I don't think those boys with you will likely come around for a while yet. If they know in the first place where we are." He smelled her hair and fisted a hand in it, yanking hard.

Tsukushi fell to her knees and cursed. "Get it over with, old man. I don't like when men do nothing but talk." She turned her head to look over her shoulder up at him. "It's a major bore. Not to mention a turn-off."

His booming laughter echoed in her mind. What the fuck did she just do? "Did you hear that, Jun-Fu? She's bored!" He laughed again as her shoved her to the guard. "I'll let you at her first, my friend. It's always more fun to watch them before."

Jun-Fu didn't smirk or chuckle. Just stared down at her with hard, icy eyes.

Tsukushi closed her eyes as the guard threw her to the floor and moved over her.

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

Doumyouji ran down the hallway of the fifth floor, looking for any sign of Makino. By this time, he knew, she'd likely be in one of the rooms with the two men. But this didn't stop the knowledge that if he tried, if he happened upon a room that sounded like there was someone in distress inside, he had a chance to find Makino. And he had to find Makino. If nothing else mattered in his life, saving Makino from being butchered would.

It was his job to kill her, and only his. And seeing as he wasn't likely to complete the mission given to him by the one person he himself would rather strangle than take missions from, no one in this world would kill Makino without his wrath raining down upon them. And suffering his wrath would be worse than any terror any god could muster should Makino's heart stop.

Rui ran beside him, listening and looking with eyes that were incredibly sharp for a guy who slept sixteen hours a day. If they didn't find her, Doumyouji knew they'd bother likely go into a killing state of mind. And Rui was a hard one to rile up.

He had no idea why he felt the way he did for a girl who yelled and cursed him more than his sister Tsubaki could in one breathe without regretting or apologizing afterward. That's who Makino reminded him of. Tsubaki. The gods knew Makino had cursed and yelled and even attacked him physically often enough during the days that had lead up to this stupid 'group project' assassination! She'd nearly thrown him off a flight of stairs. It had been his own fault, of course. He'd tried to sneak up on her for some silly reason and she'd been in her own little world. So, naturally when he'd attacked her she'd let out this silly war cry that was more comical than frightening. . .

She'd grabbed his arm and been only a few pounds of muscle away from tossing him down the stairwell! Doumyouji's chest tightened as he realized that might have been the moment he'd fallen (almost literally) in love with her.

Shit… You finally find the love of your life and said person disappears without a trace in the hands of a man that was capable, and even likely, to rip her apart. Doumyouji found he couldn't breathe. His lungs wouldn't work. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he suddenly started yelling, "Makino!"

Rui followed suit, calling for the girl, yelling her name and both almost ran into a young group of hotel guests no older than them. They pushed away from the group and ran around corners at random.

"We have a location!" Soujirou yelled into the headsets, almost deafening Doumyouji. "This chick came decked out. She has a fucking tracking device on her! Wow, we need to group up with her more often. She knows what she's doing."

In the background, the thin sound of Akira saying, "Oi, Soujirou, can you unzip me?" made both Doumyouji and Rui miss a step in their running.

"Akira, please, for the love of Buddha, put your pants on. That skirt on you is too…"

"Location!" Rui and Doumyouji shouted in harmony.

"Right. Um, let's see. Looks like she's in room 669. Hm, I wonder if that creep picked that room for a reason . . ." Soujirou murmured as he typed some information into Makino's computer. Suddenly, a window popped up that had nothing to do with his secret gingerbread cookie recipe, which he was giving to Makino as a kind of gift. "Um, Doumyouji, I think she's wired herself up to her computer."

"Why?" he asked as he and Rui ran up the stairs to the next floor. Room 669 was only minutes away from becoming a war zone.

"'Cause I've got visual. Shit, Tsakasa, you better haul ass to that room!"

Fucking A, Doumyouji thought cursing and picking up the pace, if it were possible"Makino, you sure as hell better be fighting those bastards off with all that force you seem to enjoy using on me!"

. . . 665 . . . 666 . . . _(Author: Hehe, 666 . . . Totally random, I swear!)_

Makino . . .

. . . 667 . . .

Makino.

. . . 668 . . .

_Makino!_

The door flew into the room, falling helplessly to the carpeted floor next to the table were two figures sat, staring with shocked expressions at the two gun barrels pointed at them. And the two faces that promised death should they move.

One, however, ignored the threat and two fingers tightened ever so slightly before both they were given a shock to their systems. "Hey, guys." Makino said, standing up from the room's only table. She and the bodyguard seemed to be tying the target's body to the table, his arms to the table legs, and his legs to the two extra chairs offered in the room. His face was bloody and his nose looked broken, multiple times, in fact. His pasty skin looked even pastier when covered in sweat. A knife protruded from the tabletop between the man's spread legs, though no damage appeared to be done.

Wide eyes looked at the girl, still dressed as she'd been, though now her pigtails, as adorable as they were, were now taken down, her straight hair falling into her eyes. Rui's eyes stared with a kind of shocked wonder, while Doumyouji's held only fear, though covered by a look of raw violence.

"This is Jun-Fu. He's an undercover guy from the Families." Makino shoved a chair back hard and the man's legs touched briefly with the sharp instrument between his legs. "He's been following this ass for a few years."

Jun-Fu, a big ass guy with muscles that could take on a bull, stood and bowed. "Sorry for the worry of your woman. But I found this was my chance to take Mr. Iikeshi down."

Makino shrugged. "He said he'd seen us before we walked into the hotel and warned the guy about us."

"I figured if he knew, and she tried for him, Mr. Iikeshi would want to take her upstairs." Jun-Fu bowed again, this time to Makino. "My thanks, Miss Makino Tsukushi. I need to take my leave, however. I have superiors to answer to."

"Mm." She nodded and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for not using that knife on me." She blushed and scratched the back of her head. "I've had some bad experiences lately. Lots of weapons being used on me."

"Gentlemen." He bowed - yet again - before walking out of the room, leaving the knife and two very confused boys behind him.

A sudden rage boiled up in Doumyouji. "What the hell are you thinking? Letting that murderer go?"

Makino looked confused. "But he's tied to the table . . ."

Rui giggled. "I think he means Jun-Fu, Makino-san."

"Oh. He's not a . . ."

"Those girls that were killed before. A knife was used on them, Makino! Didn't you think! Jun-Fu . . ." Doumyouji felt like killing the whole lot of people at the moment.

"Had nothing to do with it." She looked down at her target. "Did he?"

The man struggled, shaking his head and crying something behind the duct tape gag. Where the hell had she gotten duct tape? Better yet, he didn't want to know. "See. Jun-Fu wasn't there when this guy did all that stuff."

That's it, Doumyouji thought. Time to end this. "Makino, Rui. Why don't both of you go down and reassure Soujirou and Akira that you're okay."

"We know." The two boys chirped on all three headsets.

Of course. "Go down anyway. I'll take care of this guy . . ."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Makino yelled, her face contorting in an angry pout he'd seen often enough the last few days. Her voice rose and her fists came up. "This is my target! I'm not about to let you steal my thunder! I get to kill him due to the fact I was the one who he was assigned to, so _you_ go downstairs. I'll be down in five minutes."

Tsukushi kicked both of them to the door and, right before slamming the door in their faces said, "Just bring up a bag, okay?" With that, they were left alone in the hallway, Rui laughing silently, and Doumyouji pouting in anger.

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

"Seven minutes." Doumyouji pouted as he stared at his watch, waiting for Tsukushi to return from the hotel room and meet the guys out front. They had sent up a body bag five minutes ago, and still, Makino seemed to be working. She had cut the feed to her computer, thus making them blind to what was really going on in the room with the target.

Doumyouji began to pace the sidewalk, Soujirou and Akira watching him walk back and forth in front of the hotel's doors, at times blocking the police and other stragglers that passed to move inside. He, of course, being Doumyouji, didn't notice them.

What was wrong with him? Why did he care about this . . . this _girl_? Why did he care what happened to her? Why did he think about her every waking moment of his life? Why did he want to take her away from the life they lived?

Why did it have to be the way it was?

He was supposed to kill her. The folder with everything about her even now sat inside his desk, marks and notes in the areas that were important, circles around information crucial to his mission to assassinate her and make it look as if it hadn't been a hit. His life was also on the line. If he failed this mission, he'd be dead, as well as Makino. She'd send another. He knew she would.

The selfish bitch was out to control everything. Even him.

"Fuck."

"I'm back!" Makino popped out of the doors, almost slamming into Doumyouji, who was spacing out. Smiling at the four boys, Soujirou and Akira the most obviously thrilled of the four to see her, stood and waved, smiling their silly, flirtatious smiles at her. "Oi, Makino, you gave us a scare, there for a minute. What took you?"

"Oh," Makino started, pointing to the bellman who had a large suitcase on his cart. "I had to call up for help with my, um, bag. It was too heavy for me." She blushed and giggled. "I am just a girl, remember." She said pointedly at Doumyouji.

The boy stood frozen in place a few feet from her. He seemed to be staring straight thru her, making her shaking as those cold eyes bore into her own. He had a really scare look to him sometimes. This wasn't half as scary as she knew he could be, though. Soujirou had told her several times in the last week that when Doumyouji was pissed, he looked very calm. "Deadly calm," Soujirou had said. This was more of a "I'm angry with you, don't open your month calm."

Or was it?

There was something more in that stare that she couldn't really put her finger on, but it scared her, and she didn't normally scare easily.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Tsukushi turned to Akira and held out her hand. "Computer, please."

The boy's face fell. "Ah, man. But I like it so much. You have got that thing seriously pimped."

"Pimped?" She and Soujirou said in unison, Rui adding his own WTF? look. Akira pouted. "What? It is awesome what she has on there!"

Makino paused, looking up at him from under her lashes. "You went through my computer?"

Akira shrugged. "Just the stuff you had up already. That camera you had? What was it attached to?"

Doumyouji saw Makino relax visibly. Was there something on her computer she didn't want them to see? His eyes narrowed at her hands, clutching at the computer case Akira had handed her tightly to her chest. Something was off.

"Oh," Makino said, reaching up to touch her necklace. "It's in here. This was a gift from my mama on my sixteenth. The camera came with it and she showed me how to work it while was throwing a pan at me."

"You mother throws pans at you?"

"Yeah. I tick her off all the time. She always says I'm not spoiled enough. She's crazy, you know. Papa, too." Makino started walking in a random direction. "Let's go eat! I'm starving! I know this great little tea shop about a mile away. You guys wanna join me?"

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

OKAY! That's one chapter more! I really want to keep her kinda like she is in the anime, but Tsukushi, when I write her in my stories, always ends up being OOC! Its crazy! But for those few who know what I'm talking about, yes, the tea shop is the one in the building that she and Doumyouji got stuck in in the anime.

Hope everyone enjoyed this. I already had a bunch of it written out when I started again, so it didn't take me too long.

Now I have to find out what's on her computer. Something sneaky, I know, but I don't remember! Its been a while since I actually opened this story! I can't remember where I was going! I have to re-read the chapter before it!


	6. Finish It

HI, everyone. I know it's been, well, FOREVER, but I've had my senior year of high school to go through, I had to clean out my computer a while back, put ALL my stuff onto disks, and I've been reading far too many books, so my brain has been soaking in vampire romance novels. However! I believe I need to get back into my stories, not only because I need to give you guys the stories, but because I need to work on my responsibilities and these give me a responsibility to you all.

So, here we are. The next chapter. Hope it's good. I'm not sure where these next chapters will go. I mostly only have the ending planned out.

IF YOU SEE A PLOT ERROR, PLEASE TELL ME!

**Disclaimer: I'm running low, so we'll just say "**_**I DON'T OWN HANA YORI DANGO!"**_** There, now we can really move on!**

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

**Chapter Four: Finish It**

She couldn't have enjoyed the pigtails more. They moved back and forth with every step and, though often getting in her way, were too adorable to resist. And from the F4's reactions downstairs, she must be pulling them off rather nicely.

The old guy next to her was smirking sickeningly at her and she beamed right on back, showing nothing but sweet-faced innocence. A lie anyone who knew her would detect in a second. Innocent was a word never to be confused with Makino Tsukushi of the Makino Family. Nope, she may look sweet and virginal … well, okay the virginal was true, but sweet was only an illusion. She'd killed more people than Cecil B. DeMille in her short lifespan. The last time she'd taken count was forty-nine. And for a seventeen year old high school girl, that was quite the body count.

And this was only the beginning for her. The Families wanted to keep her on as an assassin for as long as possible. That could mean all her life. In fact, it was very likely that she'd end her assassin days in a body bag or even in the slammer. She'd rather die than be locked up for 400 years, but hey. When her days serving the Families were done, _she'd_ be done. Easy as that.

Shaking off the thought of death or jail, Makino bounced around like a bouncy ball from one of those vending machines. Bounce, bounce, bounce. No doubt she was giving this perverted killer ideas as to what her last moments of breathe would be doing. After reading his profile, she was a little thrown off with seducing a man that raped, tortured, and killed little girls for pleasure.

Well, this sadistic son of a bitch was about to get what was coming to him.

It was eerie that the man beside her was thinking along the same lines. This little girl was about to get it, and get it hard from him. She thought she was clever, dressing up to look the part, but he knew the routines of assassin ass-fucks. This girl was about to get the fuck of her life from him and his man behind them. Then maybe he'd let her rest before doing her again, only this time with the knife his bodyguard was so fond of. Yeah, that'd show this little tease, wouldn't it?

He only wondered where the others were. Those four boys he'd been warned about before the party. Family scum. They'd find out shortly that you didn't fuck with him.

And this little child was going to learn that lesson first.

Smiling down at the shinning face of Makino Tsukushi, he opened his hotel room door and waved her in, then waited for his guard to join them before closing the door and locking it. Those four boys would just have to wait. He'd take care of them. They'd most likely wonder where their bitch was, but…

Tsukushi didn't blink an eye at the locked door, nor at the creepy smile on her target's face. But the bodyguard was a problem. He stood at near 6'8 and was a serious looking SOB. And it didn't help her nerves when his cold eyes scraped over her and he reached into his coat for an eleven inch blade that looked like it would be a real pain in the ass… or wherever these guys preferred it.

The target grinned and waved a hand at the bodyguard. "This is Jun-Fu. He'll be joining us for dinner tonight."

Tsukushi smiled that bright, sunlit smile at their evil faces. "Hello." She said sweetly.

"No need to be shy, little Makino." He chuckled when her eyes snapped up. "Oh, yes, I know you very well. I've seen you often enough. I didn't just grab two Family girls up on accident, dear girl. I _chose_ them. In fact, had I more time, I'd have come after you soon enough." He walked slowly toward her and ran a finger down her cheek. His eyes were dark, almost pitch black with blood lust. Or maybe it was simply evil. She really didn't care at the moment. She was locked in a room with two murderers. And the one before her was already reaching for the buttons of her shirt.

She swept an arm out and tried to deck him, but he moved with impossible speed under her fist, grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her arm behind her back. "Little wild cat. Pussy cat, really." He touched her face, nearly laughed when she jerked her head away from his fingers. "Don't struggle so, darling. I don't think those boys with you will likely come around for a while yet. If they know in the first place where we are." He smelled her hair and fisted a hand in it, yanking hard.

Tsukushi fell to her knees and cursed. "Get it over with, old man. I don't like when men do nothing but talk." She turned her head to look over her shoulder up at him. "It's a major bore. Not to mention a turn-off."

His booming laughter echoed in her mind. What the fuck did she just do? "Did you hear that, Jun-Fu? She's bored!" He laughed again as her shoved her to the guard. "I'll let you at her first, my friend. It's always more fun to watch them before."

Jun-Fu didn't smirk or chuckle. Just stared down at her with hard, icy eyes.

Tsukushi closed her eyes as the guard threw her to the floor and moved over her.

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

Doumyouji ran down the hallway of the fifth floor, looking for any sign of Makino. By this time, he knew, she'd likely be in one of the rooms with the two men. But this didn't stop the knowledge that if he tried, if he happened upon a room that sounded like there was someone in distress inside, he had a chance to find Makino. And he had to find Makino. If nothing else mattered in his life, saving Makino from being butchered would.

It was his job to kill her, and only his. And seeing as he wasn't likely to complete the mission given to him by the one person he himself would rather strangle than take missions from, no one in this world would kill Makino without his wrath raining down upon them. And suffering his wrath would be worse than any terror any god could muster should Makino's heart stop.

Rui ran beside him, listening and looking with eyes that were incredibly sharp for a guy who slept sixteen hours a day. If they didn't find her, Doumyouji knew they'd bother likely go into a killing state of mind. And Rui was a hard one to rile up.

He had no idea why he felt the way he did for a girl who yelled and cursed him more than his sister Tsubaki could in one breathe without regretting or apologizing afterward. That's who Makino reminded him of. Tsubaki. The gods knew Makino had cursed and yelled and even attacked him physically often enough during the days that had lead up to this stupid 'group project' assassination! She'd nearly thrown him off a flight of stairs. It had been his own fault, of course. He'd tried to sneak up on her for some silly reason and she'd been in her own little world. So, naturally when he'd attacked her she'd let out this silly war cry that was more comical than frightening. . .

She'd grabbed his arm and been only a few pounds of muscle away from tossing him down the stairwell! Doumyouji's chest tightened as he realized that might have been the moment he'd fallen (almost literally) in love with her.

Shit… You finally find the love of your life and said person disappears without a trace in the hands of a man that was capable, and even likely, to rip her apart. Doumyouji found he couldn't breathe. His lungs wouldn't work. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he suddenly started yelling, "Makino!"

Rui followed suit, calling for the girl, yelling her name and both almost ran into a young group of hotel guests no older than them. They pushed away from the group and ran around corners at random.

"We have a location!" Soujirou yelled into the headsets, almost deafening Doumyouji. "This chick came decked out. She has a fucking tracking device on her! Wow, we need to group up with her more often. She knows what she's doing."

In the background, the thin sound of Akira saying, "Oi, Soujirou, can you unzip me?" made both Doumyouji and Rui miss a step in their running.

"Akira, please, for the love of Buddha, put your pants on. That skirt on you is too…"

"Location!" Rui and Doumyouji shouted in harmony.

"Right. Um, let's see. Looks like she's in room 669. Hm, I wonder if that creep picked that room for a reason . . ." Soujirou murmured as he typed some information into Makino's computer. Suddenly, a window popped up that had nothing to do with his secret gingerbread cookie recipe, which he was giving to Makino as a kind of gift. "Um, Doumyouji, I think she's wired herself up to her computer."

"Why?" he asked as he and Rui ran up the stairs to the next floor. Room 669 was only minutes away from becoming a war zone.

"'Cause I've got visual. Shit, Tsakasa, you better haul ass to that room!"

Fucking A, Doumyouji thought cursing and picking up the pace, if it were possible"Makino, you sure as hell better be fighting those bastards off with all that force you seem to enjoy using on me!"

. . . 665 . . . 666 . . . _(Author: Hehe, 666 . . . Totally random, I swear!)_

Makino . . .

. . . 667 . . .

Makino.

. . . 668 . . .

_Makino!_

The door flew into the room, falling helplessly to the carpeted floor next to the table were two figures sat, staring with shocked expressions at the two gun barrels pointed at them. And the two faces that promised death should they move.

One, however, ignored the threat and two fingers tightened ever so slightly before both they were given a shock to their systems. "Hey, guys." Makino said, standing up from the room's only table. She and the bodyguard seemed to be tying the target's body to the table, his arms to the table legs, and his legs to the two extra chairs offered in the room. His face was bloody and his nose looked broken, multiple times, in fact. His pasty skin looked even pastier when covered in sweat. A knife protruded from the tabletop between the man's spread legs, though no damage appeared to be done.

Wide eyes looked at the girl, still dressed as she'd been, though now her pigtails, as adorable as they were, were now taken down, her straight hair falling into her eyes. Rui's eyes stared with a kind of shocked wonder, while Doumyouji's held only fear, though covered by a look of raw violence.

"This is Jun-Fu. He's an undercover guy from the Families." Makino shoved a chair back hard and the man's legs touched briefly with the sharp instrument between his legs. "He's been following this ass for a few years."

Jun-Fu, a big ass guy with muscles that could take on a bull, stood and bowed. "Sorry for the worry of your woman. But I found this was my chance to take Mr. Iikeshi down."

Makino shrugged. "He said he'd seen us before we walked into the hotel and warned the guy about us."

"I figured if he knew, and she tried for him, Mr. Iikeshi would want to take her upstairs." Jun-Fu bowed again, this time to Makino. "My thanks, Miss Makino Tsukushi. I need to take my leave, however. I have superiors to answer to."

"Mm." She nodded and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for not using that knife on me." She blushed and scratched the back of her head. "I've had some bad experiences lately. Lots of weapons being used on me."

"Gentlemen." He bowed - yet again - before walking out of the room, leaving the knife and two very confused boys behind him.

A sudden rage boiled up in Doumyouji. "What the hell are you thinking? Letting that murderer go?"

Makino looked confused. "But he's tied to the table . . ."

Rui giggled. "I think he means Jun-Fu, Makino-san."

"Oh. He's not a . . ."

"Those girls that were killed before. A knife was used on them, Makino! Didn't you think! Jun-Fu . . ." Doumyouji felt like killing the whole lot of people at the moment.

"Had nothing to do with it." She looked down at her target. "Did he?"

The man struggled, shaking his head and crying something behind the duct tape gag. Where the hell had she gotten duct tape? Better yet, he didn't want to know. "See. Jun-Fu wasn't there when this guy did all that stuff."

That's it, Doumyouji thought. Time to end this. "Makino, Rui. Why don't both of you go down and reassure Soujirou and Akira that you're okay."

"We know." The two boys chirped on all three headsets.

Of course. "Go down anyway. I'll take care of this guy . . ."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Makino yelled, her face contorting in an angry pout he'd seen often enough the last few days. Her voice rose and her fists came up. "This is my target! I'm not about to let you steal my thunder! I get to kill him due to the fact I was the one who he was assigned to, so _you_ go downstairs. I'll be down in five minutes."

Tsukushi kicked both of them to the door and, right before slamming the door in their faces said, "Just bring up a bag, okay?" With that, they were left alone in the hallway, Rui laughing silently, and Doumyouji pouting in anger.

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

"Seven minutes." Doumyouji pouted as he stared at his watch, waiting for Tsukushi to return from the hotel room and meet the guys out front. They had sent up a body bag five minutes ago, and still, Makino seemed to be working. She had cut the feed to her computer, thus making them blind to what was really going on in the room with the target.

Doumyouji began to pace the sidewalk, Soujirou and Akira watching him walk back and forth in front of the hotel's doors, at times blocking the police and other stragglers that passed to move inside. He, of course, being Doumyouji, didn't notice them.

What was wrong with him? Why did he care about this . . . this _girl_? Why did he care what happened to her? Why did he think about her every waking moment of his life? Why did he want to take her away from the life they lived?

Why did it have to be the way it was?

He was supposed to kill her. The folder with everything about her even now sat inside his desk, marks and notes in the areas that were important, circles around information crucial to his mission to assassinate her and make it look as if it hadn't been a hit. His life was also on the line. If he failed this mission, he'd be dead, as well as Makino. She'd send another. He knew she would.

The selfish bitch was out to control everything. Even him.

"Fuck."

"I'm back!" Makino popped out of the doors, almost slamming into Doumyouji, who was spacing out. Smiling at the four boys, Soujirou and Akira the most obviously thrilled of the four to see her, stood and waved, smiling their silly, flirtatious smiles at her. "Oi, Makino, you gave us a scare, there for a minute. What took you?"

"Oh," Makino started, pointing to the bellman who had a large suitcase on his cart. "I had to call up for help with my, um, bag. It was too heavy for me." She blushed and giggled. "I am just a girl, remember." She said pointedly at Doumyouji.

The boy stood frozen in place a few feet from her. He seemed to be staring straight thru her, making her shaking as those cold eyes bore into her own. He had a really scare look to him sometimes. This wasn't half as scary as she knew he could be, though. Soujirou had told her several times in the last week that when Doumyouji was pissed, he looked very calm. "Deadly calm," Soujirou had said. This was more of a "I'm angry with you, don't open your month calm."

Or was it?

There was something more in that stare that she couldn't really put her finger on, but it scared her, and she didn't normally scare easily.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Tsukushi turned to Akira and held out her hand. "Computer, please."

The boy's face fell. "Ah, man. But I like it so much. You have got that thing seriously pimped."

"Pimped?" She and Soujirou said in unison, Rui adding his own WTF? look. Akira pouted. "What? It is awesome what she has on there!"

Makino paused, looking up at him from under her lashes. "You went through my computer?"

Akira shrugged. "Just the stuff you had up already. That camera you had? What was it attached to?"

Doumyouji saw Makino relax visibly. Was there something on her computer she didn't want them to see? His eyes narrowed at her hands, clutching at the computer case Akira had handed her tightly to her chest. Something was off.

"Oh," Makino said, reaching up to touch her necklace. "It's in here. This was a gift from my mama on my sixteenth. The camera came with it and she showed me how to work it while was throwing a pan at me."

"You mother throws pans at you?"

"Yeah. I tick her off all the time. She always says I'm not spoiled enough. She's crazy, you know. Papa, too." Makino started walking in a random direction. "Let's go eat! I'm starving! I know this great little tea shop about a mile away. You guys wanna join me?"

)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(

OKAY! That's one chapter more! I really want to keep her kinda like she is in the anime, but Tsukushi, when I write her in my stories, always ends up being OOC! Its crazy! But for those few who know what I'm talking about, yes, the tea shop is the one in the building that she and Doumyouji got stuck in in the anime.

Hope everyone enjoyed this. I already had a bunch of it written out when I started again, so it didn't take me too long.

Now I have to find out what's on her computer. Something sneaky, I know, but I don't remember! Its been a while since I actually opened this story! I can't remember where I was going! I have to re-read the chapter before it!


End file.
